One day in April, 2016, the parking brake on one of Flavio Borges Prado’s trucks failed, causing the vehicle to roll down a hill and collide into a residential housing structure, injuring the driver and causing significant damages to the property.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is making $1 million in grant funding available for training and outreach programs to help local communities prepare for transportation incidents involving hazardous materials, including crude oil and ethanol.
The Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI®) recently celebrated its 10th anniversary working toward sustainable jet fuels. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) helped found the coalition a decade ago to promote the development and deployment of alternative jet fuels that sustainably reduce lifecycle carbon emissions and local pollution around airports. These innovative new fuels also improve energy security, minimize fuel price volatility, and enhance rural development.
As of this month, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) requires rental car agencies to fix any and all open safety defects before renting out vehicles to customers. The new legislation requiring it was recently passed by the Congress in the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act of 2015.
The probable cause of the 2015 collision of the Conti Peridot and the Carla Maersk in the Houston Ship Channel was the inability of the pilot on the Conti Peridot to respond appropriately to hydrodynamic forces after meeting another vessel during restricted visibility, and his lack of communication with other vessels about this handling difficulty controlling his vessel, said the National Transportation Safety Board.
Three people in a jet and three on the ground died during a fiery crash in 2014 that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says was caused by the pilot’s failure to turn on de-icing equipment.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the U.S. Coast Guard and engineers from the U.S. Navy and Phoenix International will head to the Bahamas early next month in an effort to recover a voyage data recorder (VDR) that rests under 15,000 feet of water.
On Valentine’s Day in Silicon Valley, one of Google’s experimental, self-driving cars sideswiped a city bus at 2 miles an hour. The incident marked the first time an autonomous car contributed to an accident on a public road, but did nothing to diminish the Obama administration’s enthusiasm for driverless vehicles.
Driving-related incidents are the single largest operational cause of fatalities in the oil and gas industry – a circumstance which has prompted the International Organization of Gas Producers (IOGP) to develop guidance about transportation safety for its member companies.